Lesson video

Welcome to Lesson 1 of our brand new unit, Unit 14.

In this unit, we're going to be using the story of Persephone from Unit 13, to help us as we create our own creation story.

That means we're going to be using the story structure and some of the characters to help us, so that we can create a story about how something else on Earth came to be.

With Persephone, it was all about the seasons, and we're going to be thinking about something different.

We're really going to need our imaginations this time, so I hope you're ready to go.

I love starting something new and turning over a new leaf whether it's a new week, or a new year, or even just a new book! Have you started anything new recently that you've enjoyed? In today's lesson, you're going to need something to write on like a piece of paper, or an exercise book and something to write with, like a pen or pencil.

You're going to need your brain, for coming up with lots of exciting ideas, but you've got that already.

If you don't either of the first two things, pause the video here and then press play when you've got them.

Fantastic! We're ready to get started.

In today's lesson, we're going to start off with an oral game, called "Stretch a sentence".

We're then going to move on to our spelling activity.

We're then going to be creating a story map, once we've generated some ideas for our new story, and then we're going to finish with a "Challenge Task".

For our "Stretch a sentence" game, we are going to be thinking about these things, and we're to use some characters from our previous unit, the story of Persephone, to help us.

I'm going to give an example first, and for each of these, I'm going to stretch my sentence by answering these questions.

"Who?" is going to be my first bit.

So for "Who?", I'm going to start with the character of Hades.

So, Hades is the first word of my sentence.

Is doing what? Hmm.

What does Hades do in that story? Can you think of any ideas? Okay, Hades is stealing Persephone.

When? Hades is stealing Persephone during summer.

Okay.

Where? Hades is stealing Persephone during summer, from Earth and taking her to the Underworld.

And our final one is, "Why?".

Hades is stealing Persephone during summer, and taking her from Earth to the Underworld, so that he can keep her, and hopefully marry her.

So do you see how I started off with something really simple, and by using these questions, I was able to stretch my sentence out and include lots of detail.

I would like you to have a go at stretching a sentence.

You can choose a different character, from Persephone, or you can just do it about yourself, or about someone that you know.

So you start off with a person at the beginning of a sentence, and then you add information by answering each of the questions below.

And so you've stretched your sentence out.

You can pause the video here, and have a go at practising that.

You can just say it out loud, but if you want to, you can write it down if it helps you to remember all the different parts.

Press play when you're ready to keep going.

Super star! Those were some really stretchy sentences.

Well done.

For our new spelling rule this week, we are looking at this.

The "er" sound can be spelt "or" after the letter "W".

Here are some examples on the page.

All of them, you'll notice, start with "W".

And then are followed straight after by the "or" spelling.

In all of these words, the "or" makes a "er" sound.

We're now going to do "my turn, your turn".

Which means when I point at me, I'm going to say the word, and then when I point at you, it's going to be your turn to say the word.

I'm practising saying that "er" sound even though it's spelt "or".

Okay? My turn.

Work.

Your turn.

My turn.

Worm.

Your turn.

My turn.

Worth.

Your turn.

My turn.

World.

Your turn.

My turn.

Word.

Your turn.

Well done! You've pronounced those perfectly.

For our spelling challenge today, I'm going to be slowly taking away each of these purple rectangles, and beneath it, it's going to reveal a picture.

This picture is going to match up with one of our new words for our spelling rule today.

That means it's going to have the "er" sound, spelt "or" after the letter "W" at the beginning.

I want you to try and guess which of those words it is, and then we're going to look at the answer together at the end.

What could it be? Oh, I think I have an idea.

Can you think of an "er" sound? After the letter "W"? What do you think? Let's have a look.

World.

Good! The "er" sound spelt "or" after the letter "W".

Well done.

Let's try another one, shall we? Oh.

Okay, just remembering what "er" something.

Mm.

Maybe this one's a little bit trickier.

What "er" could this be? Okay, you got it? Let's have a look.

Work! Well done.

The "er" sound spelt "or" after letter "W".

So, in today's lesson, we are going to generate ideas for a new created story.

Instead of having Demeter as our main character, who's in charge of the seasons, we're going to have the main character of Apollo, and Apollo is the god of sun and light.

He's also the god of some other things, but for our story, we're going to focus on him being god of sun and light.

We're going to dig deeper now into some questions that are going to help us plan out what happens in our created story, and how we can use the plot structure and some of the ideas from Persephone to help guide us through this one, before we get started on our story map.

The first question says, "What could be stolen from Apollo to make him angry or sad?" Now I'm going to give you lots of choices as we're going through today, and you can choose what route you want your created story to take.

If you're finding it hard, you can make the same choices as me.

Now, I also know that Apollo's the god music.

So I think the thing that is stolen from him by Hades could be something musical, like a harp, that he likes to play.

So perhaps he has a lovely harp that's his favourite possession, and that's what Hades steals from him.

You could choose for it to be something different, it's up to you, Perhaps there's another special possession you'd like him to have, perhaps you'd like it to be a different instrument, or perhaps you'd like to stick closer to the original story of Persephone, and perhaps Hades steals Apollo's son, or daughter, or someone else that he loves.

I would like you to have a think now, are you going to choose the same as me, and have that his harp is stolen by Hades? Or would you like it to be something else? Great.

Have you chose it? Let's move on to the next question to help us dig a little deeper.

What would happen to Earth? So Hades has taken his harp to the Underworld, and that's going to make Apollo feel very angry and cross.

Now what was it I told you Apollo was in charge of? That's it.

He's in charge of the sun and light.

So perhaps when he gets angry and he gets sad, the sun and the light disappear and it becomes darkness.

Now when there's no light, that also means that things begin to die, a bit like in our first story, because we know plants need sunlight for food, to help them grow.

The sun disappears, there's no light, and everything is dark and then all of the plants start to die.

Our final question says, "What could the solution be?" We're still going to stick to the structure of Zeus, the king of gods, coming down to try and sort things out.

So perhaps he will speak to Apollo first, and Apollo will say he will not create any sunlight and sunshine until he has whatever that has been stolen from him back.

So in my story, until he gets his harp back.

In your story, it could be the same as me, or you might have chosen something different.

Then Zeus is going to go and speak to Hades, and try to make a deal.

In mine, I'm going to say that the deal they come to is about twelve hours and twelve hours.

In our original one, it was about six months and six months making a year, but for our story today, I would like it to be twelve hours and twelve hours making 24 hours of the day, split in half.

So I'm going to say for my story, that Hades managed to get the harp to play twelve notes, and because he got the harp to play twelve notes in the Underworld, he gets to keep it for twelve hours a day and then it goes back up to Apollo for twelve hours a day.

So the ending that we're going to get is that in the twelve hours of the day that Apollo has his item back or his person back, or whatever it is that you choose it's going to be sunny and lovely, and then in the the twelve hours of the day that it goes back down to Hades, it's going to be darkness.

Have you guessed what the lesson is going to be in our new created story yet? That's right! It's going to be about night and day.

So you should have, in your mind now, before we start our story map, what it is that Apollo is going to have stolen, and what does Hades get it to do twelve of before they can reach the compromise to share that item together? So I'd like you to make sure, are you doing the same as me, or have you chosen something else to be stolen from Apollo.

You can pause here if you like while you decide, and then press play when you think you're ready to do your story map.

We're going to be creating a story map now.

So you need to make sure that you've got your pen or pencil and a piece of paper and you can draw along with me whilst we do it.

Remember, if you need a little bit of time to catch up, you can always press pause or go back and press play at the bit that you want to continue from.

Okay so, in the first picture, I am going to have Apollo on Earth, I'm going to draw him with a nice smiley face.

Sunshine and light radiating out of him, because he's the god of sun and light, and I'm going to have him holding his harp, just playing some music.

And the sun is shining, 'cause he's happy, and he controls the sun, just like that.

Now remember whatever you chose to be Apollo's item, or person that gets stolen away is what needs to be with him in this first picture.

So if you didn't want to use the harp, which is absolutely fine, you need to not draw that, and draw whatever it is you're going to have stolen from him by Hades.

So I'm going to do an arrow, and in the next picture, we're going to recreate the scene in which Persephone was picking the poppies and got stolen by Hades.

But in this one, I'm going to have the harp here, and I'm going to have Apollo, and he's going to be dancing to the music of his harp, and then horrible old Hades is going to appear, his flaming hair, he's going to come and take that harp away, isn't he? Kay, now he takes that harp to the Underworld, and in the Underworld, going to have Hades, and his flaming hair.

Going to have the harp there.

So remember whatever it is that you have changed this to, if you changed it, you need to put it here, and you need to make sure it's stolen by Hades here in the Underworld.

He wants it to play, just like he wanted Persephone to marry him and speak to him, I'm going to say that it refuses.

Yeah, the harp is silent.

Kay, next picture, we're going to have poor, old, Apollo back on Earth.

I'm going to draw the sun and a big cross through it.

Because he becomes sad, and light disappears, and the sun disappears.

Then we have everything dying, so I'm going to have the tree without any leaves, and all the leaves on the floor, because there's no sunlight.

And flowers.

Oh dear.

Remember the darkness.

Darkness oh dear.

Now, in the Underworld, this is the part where we need whatever it is that's been stolen to do twelve of something.

So for our deal, like Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds, which meant that they had to split the year.

Whatever it is that's been stolen, needs to do twelve of something, so that it can stay for twelve hours with Hades.

And go to Earth for twelve hours with Apollo.

So I'm going to have Hades, his fiery hair, that, and this time, sadly, the harp's going to play twelve notes.

So you just make sure if yours is a different instrument, it could also play twelve notes, if you chose for it to be a person that's stolen away from Apollo, perhaps they eat twelve of something, it could be pomegranate seeds, it could be something else, it's up to you, as long as it's twelve.

I don't mind.

Okay, this one we've got still, Zeus coming to try and sort things out with his thunderbolt.

And he speaks to Apollo first, he's looking quite sad.

And he's asking, "Please bring the sun back".

Apollo's going to say "no", not until whatever has been stolen from him is returned.

Then we know that Zeus goes to speak to Hades.

Sorry, I've drawn him with bit of a big head.

That's fine, maybe he's a bit closer.

And the agreement they come to is that it's twelve hours spent in the Underworld, twelve hours spent on Earth.

And then for our final picture, a bit like the one before, where it was six months of summer, six months of winter, this time it's going to be twelve hours day, and twelve hours night.

Kay, so we're going to have a happy Apollo, sun shining, and his harp, playing beautiful music.

And then a sad Apollo, there's going to be no sunshine, and his harp's going to be gone.

Now it's your turn to do your story map.

Press pause here and have a go and then press play when you're ready to continue.

For our challenge task today, I would like you to think about this question.

What other power over Earth could the main character have? So we've chosen, for this one, that he is going to have the power of the sun and light, that he can control whether it's light or dark on Earth.

Can you think of another power that someone could have over Earth that could be in our story? We're not going to use it this time, but it might be an idea if you wanted to do any extra writing outside of this lesson.

And then you can go off and think of a different story.

I've got some examples down there.

Controlling people's emotions, being able to control fire.

Can you think of anything else that might be interesting? There's a sentence stem there, which you can either write down, or you can just say it out loud.

Press pause and then press play when you're ready to keep going.

Those are some fantastic ideas.

They'd make a great story.

I think you should go and write another story as well.

You've done such a good job today at using your imagination to help me generate ideas for our new creation story.

You- I would love to see your work, and if you would like to share it, ask a parent or carer, to take a picture and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

You can tag Oak National and use the hashtag, Learn with Oak.

I hope to see you in our next lesson, where we're going to be stepping and speaking our new story, using our story map to help us.